Annemarie Mol achieves two things in this book. First, she manages to make a text about living with diabetes, societally and individually, into something that is legible and fluid for someone who has no experience with this topic. Secondly, she constructs a whole theory (her Logic of Care) about how people can care for one another, and equally how people can care beyond one another, using living with diabetes as an example. To do this, succinctly, is a great achievement. To make it an enjoyable read is a bonus.

Mol contracts "care" with "choice". Her arguments are nuanced, and she is careful not to weight one over another, but instead highlight some of the problems with patients having complete choice (for example, over what medical equipment to buy), without having the care to go with it (guidance and personal advice from a nurse).

Her sensitivity to readers is also admirable, summarised in my favourite statement in the book: 'I want to avoid unmarked normality. To presume that you and I are healthy would go against the soul of what I seek to say.' (p11).